How To Repair Damaged Romex Wires

so what happens when you have a piece of exposed romex like i do right here which is right off my main panel in this house i actually had three instances exactly like this where somebody opened up the romex they took off the insulation of the neutral and hot i believe they were trying to do continuity checks but then just left them there so i have exposed wires in multiple locations in the home and i need to get those fixed so i don't have a safety issue the best solution that many pros would say is pull a new run of romex a home run all the way back to the panel now although that is the best solution you're gonna have brand new wire all the way back and no longer any exposed wires it's probably not practical in some instances so what's the option number two option number two would be to add a handy box a junction box so you're enclosing that exposed wire and then splicing that together so now it's enclosed it's safe and that box is grounded i will show you that instance of how to install a new handy box but in this instance and also common instances where maybe you were doing some work in your home you drove a nail or a screw into your wall and you knit the romex you damage the romex and now you have damage romex inside your wall which you cannot bury a handy box or a junction box inside your wall so what is that solution a company called te does make an approved splice kit that has two ends that will connect together so you'll cut your damaged romex install those in the two halves and then connect those halves together and then that's what's going to make the splice that's going to be nac approved and also can be put within a wall where you can drive all over it and it's not accessible so first up we'll install the handy box and then i'll show you how to install the splice kit on this piece of exposed romex right behind me so starting off we'll take our non-contact voltage tester and confirm we have no power to this circuit so now we're good to start the job and i have pre-made up the ground and also the clamps on the handy box prior to putting it and placing it on the ceiling so i'm just going to take two small spax screws here and i'll secure those to the ceiling providing a secure hold for the handy box now we get a little different perspective so you can see inside where i have the left and right hand side of the romex already in the handy box and tightened down with the clamps now i'm just going to clean up each of these pieces of romex taking off all the insulation the paper inside and having my hot neutral in ground all separated out and then i'll be stripping off half inch on the ground and or sorry the neutral and hot for the left and right hand sides preparing for this wago two two one lever nut which i really prefer over wire nuts and that will just tie together my neutral side here now if you don't have enough wire you can make small extensions such as this now since i do have a little extra wire i'm just going to go back to only using that one two pin to tie together that hot side and then for the ground since we will be grounding this metal handy box i will need a three pin logo which will tie the left and right hand side together and also that ground going to the handy box so close that out tuck in your ground and now everything is completed and all we have to do is put on our cover and this is basically the completed project to fix a damaged piece of romex by isolating that into a handy box so just like the junction box we're confirmed we have no power to the piece of romex that we need to work on don't forget it's always good to test on a known source now you know your voltage tester works and then confirm you have no power on the piece of romex within question so now we're safe to start the work first up i'm just going to free up this piece of romex by cutting off these zip ties it gives us a little bit more to work with and then i'm going to cut the wires evenly the ground and the hot and then i'm going to go ahead and clean up these wires and prep them for the splice kit you're going to cut your wires you're hot at an inch in length past the romex and then a quarter inch shorter so three quarters of an inch for your neutral and your ground all right so the way that this splice works is you're actually just going to press the wires in without stripping them and they're in these little forks are going to cut the insulation and make contact with the copper then you'll put this plastic top and you can see that has cradles in there you'll put that on top and then you'll press that together and that is what's going to press the wires down on those forks and make solid contact with each of the wires that's also why you want to kind of pre-set your wires just to make it easier to line everything up making sure your romex goes through the middle neutral and ground meet up with their forks and then the hot also is aligned so then we'll put the cap on top and then press that down into place then once you've confirmed everything one is lined up they actually show on the instructions that use channel locks to press those into the forks now here's all the wires lined up the nice thing with this clear top is you can confirm that you have solid connections with the forks and they actually did cut the insulation and then there's some mounting screws that will hold everything together get both of those started be careful not to strip these screws or you're going to extend out your project alright so there is one side completed now i'll do the other side so now with the two halves all you'll do is mate those up so that's it for the splice and you can see now we have solid romack solid romex everything contained within the splice so we have no exposed wires if you want to go the extra mile i know some people would prefer to then wrap this with electrical tape just to be confident that's all going to stay together and it has another layer there with the electrical tape but that is going to be up to you you this is approved just as it stands without the electrical tape so i kept saying that this is approved and it meets nec which it does but don't forget that your local municipality might have additional codes on top of any c and if this came up on home inspection as a safety issue which it was just proactively check with inspector and say line number whatever it is if we fix this with a te splice kit would that satisfy that safety issue would it take it off the inspection report most likely they're going to be in favor of that but at least you have that conversation before you do it yourself or pay for a professional do that which you should do if you do not feel safe working on electrical just be proactive with it so everybody's on the same page now i'm just a diyer i'm not a licensed electrician i'm just showing you my experience i'm not telling you exactly what to do in your situation also i'd like to hear your feedback whether you're diy or have you used this product and if you're a professional what do you think would you do this or no you'd solve it with a different way you would run that home run romex back or make sure you can install a junction box i always appreciate you guys feedback so jump down in the comments and let me know what you think now before you take off if you haven't subscribed to our channel do that now as we have multiple videos coming out per week to help you with repairs and improvements around the house and we'll catch you on the next one take care

Channel: Everyday Home Repairs

Views: 801,401

Keywords: romex wiring, romex damaged walls, romex wires exposed

Id: GhTb891mD6E

Length: 9min 46sec (586 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021